From Downtown Toronto Ontario Canada and the shores of Georgian Bay & Blue Mountain, my Collingwood Shangri-La escape, I write about people and the goings on here and music, literature and life in general. Equally left brained (IT Project Manager) and right brained (creative writing and learning to play the Ukulele). Love live music and red wine and long conversations. Pull up a chair and join me from time to time and we shall share both thoughts and company! Blog comments welcome!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

For those of you who have not been following my blog too much I feature today 2 pictures from my Toronto Liberty Village Condo and also 2 pictures from my Collingwood Georgian Bay Condo. The first two are taken from my Toronto residence. I have the most wonderful view of the downtown and of Lake Ontario from my bedroom window there . These are Toronto at sunrise.

The last two pictures were taken this morning at my Collingwood Shangri-La. I have been retreating here to write every weekend. The weather is still warm, but we are "at the ready" here for winter. All the boats have been taken out of the water at our little marina on Georgian Bay and are all tucked away snug in their winter berths. I am sure snow will be in the forecast before the month is out! I know the folks ready to escape to the Blue Mountain ski hills up here are praying for early snow.

NaNoWriMo - Half Way to the Finish Line!

In the tradition of the glass half full thinking - I was working full steam today to make sure I was at the midway point in my word count - 25,000 by the midway point in the number of days - Nov 15th i.e. today. I let out a big cheer when I reached this point at the noon hour!

I am feeling like I have climbed a mountain and having reached the peak, look down the other side and recognize that it might be a lot harder slog to go down than it was to go up. I can see the other side of the mountain and the valley below signaling the finish line, but I do have an equal distance yet to travel. So, having felt a fleeting moment of achievement and joy, I am steeling myself to continue and finish my journey on this NaNoWriMo event.

It has been a lot more difficult to meet my writing targets on a daily basis. Writing a novel is hard work even if writing generally comes easy and one has an expansive idea with lots of things to write about.

With that I will take my leave and get back to my characters who need me to take them on the remainder of their 50,000 word journey.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Today was a very productive day and I feel a bit better about getting back where I should be with my word count. However, I am even more not liking this speedy style of writing. Maybe it is the control freak in me, but I like re-reading and revising as I go along. It just seems more the right way to do it and end up with something that might be reasonable. Since I have just been speed writing -brain to finger - no inner critic or editor engaged at all (I tied that part of my brain up in the back shed!!) ... I have this fear that I am writing utter nonsesnse and that it will just be a big waste of time in the end because I will toss the lot. Maybe it is just that habits die hard or maybe I am writing a pile of bum wipe! :( Time will tell!!

However, I will stick with it if only so that at the end I have given it a true test. Besides, I read my pep talk letter which came today from Gail Carson who amongst all the other gems of wisdom in her letter says:

Now, seriously, not fictionalized, with all the earnestness I can command, here is the only important piece of advice, which is crucial for any speed of writing, any kind of writing: Do not beat up on yourself. Do not criticize your writing as lousy, inadequate, stupid, or any of the evil epithets that you are used to heaping on yourself. Such self-bashing is never useful. If you indulge in it, your writing doesn’t stand a chance. So when your mind turns on you, turn it back, stamp it down, shut it up, and keep writing.

I happened upon this bloggist as she was featured on the NaNoWriMo.org site as someone who did her first NaNoWriMo last year and has published several novels since then. (Actually this woman seems an incredible word machine - and pretty funny as well.)

Now back at it for me! - I need to break the 15K barrier tonight and I have another 600 words to go!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Got home after 8 and my brain is mush after a stressful day and I have less than no motivation to work on my NaNo novel. Instead I thought I would write a few observations and note that until yesterday I was ahead of schedule and promise in front of all the Blogisphere that I will catch up over the weekend!

I must admit I am finding it difficult to change my writing style from contemplative and re-read and edit as I go along (= too slow to finish in a month) to the stream of consiousness, write without reading and editing style. I keep thinking that what I am writing will be crap, lack cohesiveness and will be rambling and boring...

However, in order to finish 50,000 words in 30 days you pretty much have to leave behind your inner editor and just forge ahead and brain dump. I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised at the end of the month that I have been able to capture some splendid ideas, even if I have to re-write the entire sucker from scratch...

So I was a bit down on the whole thing until I got today's "pep talk" email. The organizers of the NaNoWriMo thing have it all figured out. The way to keep us motivated is to send encouraging notes to all us NaNo participants. It is day 5 and already I have received 2 of these emails. The latest email is from the author Jasper Fforde. In essence, he affirms that the result will not be good, it will probably be a stinker - but as a consequence of doing this I will learn a lot and be a much better writer at the end of it - and it will be a remembered as a great month of fun.

So far, it has been a bit short on fun, but I should probably partake in a few of the silly NaNo events, such as Sunday's "Subway write". So the deal is that all the Toronto NaNoWriMos will gather at the Finch Subway station at 1 pm and all board the same car at 1:15 and we all work on our novels as the train takes us on its circuit. Hmmm, a bit silly, but what the hey...

Incidentally, I am updating the little NaNoWriMo widget at the right each day when I finish my day's writing. Your encouragement through comments cheering me on are very welcomed.

Hmmm, where was I? It was a stormy night when blah blah blah blah... (is it fair to up the word count by a few blah's?)

About Me

I have a great curiosity and interest in the many things around me. I love to travel, even if it is for a walk around the block. I have loved and lost, loved and thrown away and loved again. Currently trying to figure out whether there is a "Mr Right" in my future. My 5 adult children are reasonably self sufficient now and I have the time to indulge myself by exploring the things which interest me. I am now trying to figure out if I am really in retirement and if so how to reconstruct my life or if I am just taking a break from my career for a while.